First look: Sony VAIO CR35
Posted by admin in First Look, Reviews, Tech on February 23, 2008
This week I got a chance to look at the latest Sony VAIO series laptops recently launched in India.
One of my friends was looking for a laptop in the sub 50k range and we were very lucky to be probably one of first owners of CR35 in India.
I usually do not like Sony’s laptops. 2 reasons. First they do not have any offerings in the budget category. And second that their laptops are usually expensive. However, my notion changed after I looked at the new CR series.
Here is the configuration of CR35:
– Intel T8100 2.1 GHz Core 2 Duo
– 2 GB DDR2 RAM
– 200 GB HDD
– ATI Radeon 128 MB dedicated graphics
– 14.1” LCD screen
– DVD Superdrive
– Windows Vista Home Premium
– Apple type keyboard (not backlit though)
Some other features include:
– AV mode (no need to boot windows to watch DVDs or watch photos or listen to songs)
– Color choice
– The black one probably comes with a fingerprint reader
This model is available at a MRP of around 54k at all the Sony showrooms. You can also purchase this from some shops in Nehru Place for about 52.5k.
As is evident from the config above, this seems like a nice deal. You cannot get a similar config in any other brand for this price.
I used the laptop for a few hours and here is how I rate it (on a scale of 1 to 5. 1 being poor and 5 being excellent):
Performance: 3.5 (due to vista. Install XP and you are at atleast 4)
Value for money: 4.5
Features: 4
Build quality: 4.5
Overall: 4
UPDATE: Thanks to Siddhartha for pointing this out. The above configuration is better than the existing CR23 and CR26 models in the Sony VAIO range. People considering to buy those should go for CR35 as it is considerably cheaper.
NEW: Check out details about the latest Sony Vaio SR 13 series laptop on woikr .
Hide n Seek
Summer is approaching in Northern India. While I was in the park today doing my routine morning walk, I noticed this beautiful sky I could not resist leaving un-captured.
The photos have been taken using my Apple iPhone at around 9 AM IST at Trifala Park Sector 61 Noida.
Originally uploaded by setu_garg
WTF
I saw an advertisement today in an India’s leading newspaper on the front page urging people to not talk on mobile phone while driving. For the record – in India, people usually drive as if they are drunk. Add mobile to it and you have many casualties.
Now, the advertisement shows a person driving a car and wearing a bluetooth headset. If you look closely, you will find that the person is sitting on the front left seat of the car and the car indeed is left hand drive!
Everything is fine except that we have right hand drive here in India! Unless the advertisement was meant for the select few who import vehicles from the US, it completly misses the target audience!
The advertisement was given by the Delhi government which is organising the 2010 Commonwealth games in India.
When will these idiots understand that keeping the right audience in mind is the first thing to do when creating an advertisement.
Seriously people. Grow up.
The death of the scrapbook :(
I have been receiving a lot of new year wishes in my scrapbook lately. Usually I like such wishes, however, most of my friends are using 3rd party scripts to send such wishes to every person in in their friends’ list. I do not think its a good idea.
Maybe I am being judgemental, but I think this defeats the purpose of the scrapbook. The whole idea of the scrapbook is to leave teasers or one liners for your friends while you are visiting their profiles. And maybe for people you do not know yet but want to know more. Its a great way to start a conversation with a total stranger on orkut.
With these 3rd party scripts (in which their own link supersedes the scrap), I am afraid that the charm of the orkut scrapbook is dead. I do not feel like checking my scrapbook when I see that I have a new scrap. Whats the use of wasting time when I will only end up deleting that scrap?
Google will have to definitly take some action for this. Else this will soon become another medium for spam and useless forwards.
WTF
Check out the broadband plans offered by Reliance in India:
Image source: http://www.reliancecommunications.co.in/Communications/rcom/broadband/broadband_con_postpaid.html
Hmm. 600 Mbps for INR 1799 pm? Sounds like a pretty good deal? It 75 MBPS at just 45$ a month? Hey, this is not justified to Americans. I mean they only got a maximum of 40 MBPS in some households that too extremely costly!
Mr. Ambani, are you in for another Monsoon hungama? This time in the broadband regime?
Thank god I changed my carrier. I am never gonna switch back to Reliance. If these guys cannot maintain a good website, what should we expect from them in terms of services & customer care?
Seriously people, wake up.
UPDATE: Seems like Reliance guys corrected the problem. Do not know how they found out, but hey, glad to be of help :).
Where are we going?
Sometimes I just wonder where are we all heading ?
Now I am obviously not thinking in philosophical terms and talking about tech here. When I turn around and look back at the year which has almost passed away, I see:
- A top notch software giant release a newer version of its operating system which is inferior to its own predecessor.
- Another software & hardware giant announce & release the invention of the year but soon become defensive about it and is now indulged in a cat & mouse game with a handful of god sent angels.
- A company ubiquitously called the synonym of the web releases an open source mobile platform which might make the mobile industry a little less “evil” but is certainly not a breakthrough (as expected from it).
- The Indian guy which gave a software giant the then invention for the web is challenging the same giant (now a copy-cat) with his another breakthrough invention.
These were the major news in the tech world which managed to stick in the feed xmls for the longest amount of time. I do not think that the motivation behind all the above was pure innovation. I see the 2 frogs in a well story going on here. Everyone is concerned about the competition so much that much of their resources are wasted in keeping pace with their competitors. Imagine what it would be like if all their resources went into pure innovation !
This reminds me of my first ever blog post :). Why do we compete ? Why can’t we just go our own way and do whatever we are supposed to and want to? This this this & this will tell you what I am talking about.
C’mon guys ! Its high time wake up ! Rise above the obvious stuff & make us feel proud that we were born in this time !
Stupid Outlook
Have you ever replied all to a mail in Outlook? It is so stupid! If your email address is there in the recepients list, it will add it in the To: field! Now even a class II student understands the meaning of reply all.
I have used many other mail programs like Thunderbird, Gmail etc. They all are intelligent enough to remove you from the list! Even the awesome mail app in my iPhone beats Mr. Outlook in this regard.
I am thinking that I so hate this company and its products. I have hated them so much that no matter what they do, I am gonna keep hating them.
Congratulations Ishmeet!
Ishmeet just became the first voice of India! Congratulations!
I feel that this was the right choice as he had a better voice than Harsha.
However, i do not like people from Punjab, Haryana & Himachal who say that its all because of votes from their states. If this was true, then it means that he did not deserve this title at all!
I really do not dig people from these states saying that they are better and more powerful than any other state in India. I agree that these are the richest and most literate states of India, but India is a land of diversities and every state has its own importance. If they think they are better than the other states, they are no worse than Tamil Nadu which thinks it should not be a part of India.
Ismeet was chosen because his voice was better between the 2 finalists.
If it was upto me, I would have gived this title to Toshi. And I suppose most avid music lovers would agree with me.
Amazon’s iphone site
Just went to amazon.com from my iPhone to search for a bluetooth headset and was greeted with an iPhone version of the world’s biggest online marketplace!
Its good to see more and more websites developing an iPhone version.
I am just thinking about the future. Being a software developer, I have used quite a few CMS and frameworks which automatically deliver different versions of a page based on the user agent of the browser. Usually they have templates for kiosks, wml and flash/non flash versions of pages. I see another category getting added there. With the much anticipated launch of the Amazon’s kindle and Google’s android, the list is bound to expand as more and more buyers go mobile.
I would like for this process to be automated. I mean the app should be intelligent enough to detect the client’s profile and render the page without using a template.
Thats flexible :).